School snack programs give produce a boost

(Oct. 18) OTTAWA — As obesity rates weigh ever heavier, nations increasingly are turning to school snack programs to instill positive habits at an early age.

Economists report the programs are leading to more produce purchases once the trial snack programs expire, attendees learned at the fifth international symposium of the International Fruit and Vegetable Alliance.

“We have to create something that is impossible to stop,” said alliance chairman Ron Lemaire — by day the executive vice president of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association — quoting a colleague from a previous symposium.

Opening speaker Dr. Andrew Pipe from the University of Ottawa’s Heart Institute said not enough attention is paid to preventing obesity and disease, citing sobering examples from daily life: